Knowledge is Power. | The ICJ | September Series
Okay, this is bound to get people riled up and angry. I chose this topic to end my September Series because it’s an important topic and I do not think that people, young and old, should shy away from it. It is something that can seriously change Belize as we know it. The International Court of Justice, ICJ for short. A Court whose role is to settle legal disputes that are submitted to it by States. People would say, this is the answer to our problem!
Well, yes and no. Should we go to the ICJ? I believe we should. And when the referendum rolls around, I will be voting Yes to the ICJ. Now, before you click away from this page because you don’t agree with me, I don’t downplay the risk. I refuse to downplay the risks; I just believe that the risk here does not outweigh the benefits.
Let’s start with the fact that we do not know if we go to the ICJ that Guatemala will abide by that ruling. What is to say that they wouldn’t just come and invade anyway? And to that I say,
What is to stop them if we say no?
The Guatemalan Armed Forces (GAF) are already in our Sarstoon River, if we say no to the ICJ and we do not come to a close with this dispute, what is to stop them from just coming into Punta Gorda Town and shoving (or even worse, killing) those people out? What would be there to stop them from taking half our country if - and from the way it’s looking, when - we say no? Guatemala has more armed troops that we have people in Belize, it would be an easy takeover.
photo courtesy www.breakingbelizenews.com
At the very least, with the ICJ, if we win, we would have an outright clearance on where the boundary of our country is, and we would have an authority to report to if and when the Guatemalans start to invade our land. And then, even if Guatemala decides to throw out the ICJ ruling and invade, they would lose the support of the international community. Another argument against going to the ICJ is the point of the Nigeria-Cameroon case. When broken down into simple terms, the Nigeria-Cameroon case was one of disputed land. Nigeria argued the age old tale of What authority did Great Britain have to give away our sovereign land? Cameroon argued that from the period leading to its independence in 1961 and since then and till the early 1990s, Nigeria, by its actions or omissions or through statements from its legal experts has consented to Cameroonian sovereignty over the disputed area. In the end of that case, Cameroon came out victorious because of its treaties in which Nigeria signed and acknowledged the disputed land as sovereign to Cameroon. This case is COMPLETELY different from our case. For one, Guatemala was a Spanish settlement while we were a British one, and as we all know, The Spaniards had no claim to British Honduras - especially after the Battle of St. George’s Caye. Even then! It was not the settlement of Guatemala involved in that Battle, but Mexico's Spanish Settlement in the Yucatan. The British gave away no land to Guatemala, rather Guatemala is trying to take our land from under us. We are an entire country with 8,867 sq. miles of land in our country. The Bakassi peninsula is 600 sq. miles of land that is a part of a larger country; it is no where near becoming a country itself.
photo courtesy www.thewillnigeria.com
If you really want to compare our case to that of the Nigeria-Cameroon case, we are not Nigeria. With our agreed upon and signed treaties stating our borders, we are Cameroon. For a case that is more resembling of our own, I strongly encourage you to research the Libya/Chad dispute that was ruled on in 1994. I’ll even link it here. Okay, still with me after reading all of that? Again I’ll say, this is only my opinion. I’m not trying to change your opinion on this, I’m just trying to illustrate a side that I haven’t seen on social media often. Now we’ll address the real elephant in the room. How do we know, that we’ll win if we go to the ICJ? And the truth is, We don’t. There is always a risk going into a court case, and everyone has been saying that Belize is putting our head on the line by agreeing to this without knowing if we will win. Yeah, we are. But all the evidence, the legal opinions, the rulings of past cases, our own treaties that state our borders, the fact that Guatemala has been the one to reject any other peaceful negotiations over this dispute, all of it points toward Belize winning this case. We have the support of the international community to go to the ICJ. We became a part of the United Nations with everyone knowing that this claim was under our belt, why wouldn’t we decide to do something about it now that we have the chance?
photo courtesy www.economist.com
The ICJ does not rule on feelings, or opinion, or which of our political parties are in power at the moment. The ICJ rules on the basis of international law that "a boundary established by treaty thus achieves a permanence which the treaty itself does not necessarily enjoy" We have treaties that determine our borders - which Guatemala has acknowledged and signed! That alone makes our case strong enough to take to the ICJ. But, under Article 38(1) our case gains even more credibility when you see that the ICJ is under legal obligation to look at treaties, customary international law, general principals of international law (self-determination), and other past cases.
Our treaties, the 1931 and 1859 treaties, are still binding and valid. We have been here for 200+ years now, Guatemala never once settled in our country. We have Self-Determination; i.e we as Belizeans have a right to determine our political standings with all 8,867 sq. miles of our territory intact. And there are so many different cases which follow the pattern that our own case is following now. Libya/Chad, Nicaragua/Columbia, Greece/Turkey, just to name a few. All evidence points to our winning this case. So why is everyone searching for a reason that makes us lose?
The hashtags on Facebook, even our theme for this year’s September Celebrations, Belize Da Fi We, Now and Forever 8867, it’s all just nice words. They’re not enough to stop Guatemala from making claims and invading our land to establish those claims. Every legal opinion which we have gotten -from the best of the best may I add- has said that we will win this case and that when we win, Guatemala has no choice but to acknowledge our sovereignty. The odds are in our favor here. Is it a risk? Of course it is, but it’s a necessary risk to free ourselves from this territorial dispute and to ensure that the future is free for those to come after it. So yeah, call me a traitor because I want this dispute to be put to bed at the ICJ. Call me a criminal of the country because I made this blog post stating why I think we should go to the ICJ.
But at the end of the day, You Decide. Inform yourself of both the risk and benefit here; research for yourself and formulate your own opinion. I definitely did not outline all of the risks and benefits to the ICJ in this blog post. I strongly encourage you to take time out to educate yourselves on this matter. For our future, knowledge is necessary.
Thanks for Clicking, Cheyenne.
Sources:
Belizereferendum.gov.bz. (2018). Dispute Documents - Belize Referrendum. [online] Available at: http://belizereferendum.gov.bz/dispute/documents [Accessed 26 Sep. 2018].
Frombzwithhope.blogspot.com. (2018). ICJ - pros, cons, risks and precedents. [online] Available at: http://frombzwithhope.blogspot.com/2013/01/icj-pros-cons-risks-and-precedents.html [Accessed 26 Sep. 2018].
The International Court of Justice and Border-Conflict Resolution in Africa: The Bakassi Peninsula Conflict. (2007). [ebook] University of the District of Columbia: Julius Anyu. Available at: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/31293374_The_International_Court_of_Justice_and_Border-Conflict_Resolution_in_Africa_The_Bakassi_Peninsula_Conflict [Accessed 26 Sep. 2018].
Icj-cij.org. (2018). Latest developments | Territorial Dispute (Libyan Arab Jamahiriya/Chad) | International Court of Justice. [online] Available at: https://www.icj-cij.org/en/case/83 [Accessed 26 Sep. 2018].
Legal Opinions:
Lauterpacht, E., Schwebel, S., Rosenne, S. and Vicuña, F.O. (2002). Legal Opinion on Guatemala's Territorial Claim to Belize. [ebook] Belmopan, Belize: The Government Printer. Available at: http://belizereferendum.gov.bz/files/Legal%20Opinion%202002%20English.pdf [Accessed 26 Sep. 2018].
Belize News and Opinion on www.breakingbelizenews.com. (2018). The Guatemalan Claim and the ICJ. [online] Available at: https://www.breakingbelizenews.com/2018/04/17/the-guatemalan-claim-and-the-icj/ [Accessed 26 Sep. 2018].
Belizereferendum.gov.bz. (2018). Dispute Legal Opinions - Belize Referrendum. [online] Available at: http://belizereferendum.gov.bz/dispute/opinions [Accessed 26 Sep. 2018].
Lauterpacht, E. and Bowett, D. (1978). [online] Belizereferendum.gov.bz. Available at: http://belizereferendum.gov.bz/files/JointOpinion1978-1.pdf [Accessed 26 Sep. 2018].
Lauterpacht, E. (1980). [online] Belizereferendum.gov.bz. Available at: http://belizereferendum.gov.bz/files/1980%20UNGA%20Resolution.pdf [Accessed 26 Sep. 2018].
